Lessons from the Garden of Eden6

The Nature of Right & Wrong

Earlier in this series of essays, an examination of Right
& Wrong was put aside in order to focus attention on Good & Evil. It’s time now to put Right & Wrong
back in the spot light.

It’s already been established that the concepts of Right
& Wrong existed independently from those of Good & Evil in the
Garden. God told Adam & Eve
they could eat the fruit of nay tree in the Garden (right behavior) except for
the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil (wrong
behavior). Adam & Eve were
given instructions as to the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do –
while they had no knowledge of Good & Evil. This clearly shows two things;

• Their knowledge of Right & Wrong preceded their
knowledge of Good & Evil,

• It is possible to understand Right & Wrong independent
of the concepts of Good & Evil.

Life outside the Garden, however, has merged these concepts together. Right is equated with Good. Wrong is equated to Bad/Evil. The time has come to separate this
“unholy” union. They are not
Siamese twins. Their union is not
natural. They need to be
separated.

Separating the concepts of Good & Evil from Right &
Wrong – removing their connective tissues -- frees Right & Wrong to be what
they were meant to be in the first place: Learning Tools.

What also needs to be understood about Right & Wrong is
they are two sides of one coin.
And that coin is Knowledge.

Right
= obtaining the desired or intended results

Wrong
= obtaining undesired or unintended results.

Freeing Right & Wrong from the stigma of morality makes
them better, more effective learning tools. Suddenly, they are all about achieving a goal/obtaining a
desired result. You proceed “the
right way,” you achieve your goal.
You proceed “the wrong way,” you don’t.

But here’s the interesting thing about “the wrong way” and
why it is so important to free it from the shackles of morality: you can always
try again, in a different manner.
Wrong doesn’t mean you aren’t going to achieve your goal or intended
result, it just means you haven’t achieved it yet. It is possible to learn from wrong to achieve right.

Attaching the moral concept of “bad or evil” to wrong
subverts this learning process. It
brings in feelings of guilt. It
makes the doer feel lesser about him/herself. This tends to inhibit action -- the person stops trying. The learning process abruptly stops. Opportunities are lost. Lessons are not learned. The bottom line result of this is:
feelings of inadequacy are reinforced.
Futility and depression enter the picture. The “wrong doer” starts to believe he/she is a bad,
incomplete, broken person.

This is why it is so important to de-moralize wrong.

Once it is freed of the morality baggage, wrong actually has
wonderful things to offer:

Doing
something wrong and learning from it opens new paths to right – to
attaining the desired result

The
process of moving from wrong to right often leads to innovation and, in
many cases, advancements.

Given this, a case can be made that being wrong a few times
is, in truth, something that is very beneficial.

What can you learn from doing things right? Presumably, the quickest and most
reliable way to attain the desired result. Doing something the right way means you now know what steps/
processes need to be followed to achieve the intended goal again and again.

What it doesn’t mean is that you are better than the next
person for having done something right.

And here’s an interesting attribute of right:

Continually
doing something the right way often leads to complacency and
stagnation.

“Don’t fix what ain’t broke” is an oft-used axiom. It is also the key reason why people,
organizations and corporations are overtaken by their competitors.

You learn from right; you learn from wrong. Doing something wrong doesn’t make
someone bad any more than doing something right makes them good. Any moral characterization, association
or connection has to be severed.

Right & Wrong are about action. Good & Bad/Evil are about
character. Period.

Good people do things wrong. And bad people can get a lot of things right. In fact, they can do everything right,
prosper and always seem to win.
Conversely, good people can keep doing things wrong and always seem to
be on the unfortunate side of things.

Right
& Wrong are the tools we humans need to get things done…and to learn how to
get the results we want. They are
the equivalent of a mechanics wrench or a surgeon’s scalpel. As wrenches and scalpels, they have no
intrinsic moral value. So it is
with Right & Wrong.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.
The Visitation of Mary
Gabriel was sent...